Thirty PKK fighters – 15 women and 15 men – destroyed their weapons in a symbolic ceremony in northern Iraq on Friday, in a historic development in Turkey’s Kurdish settlement process and the end of a bloody 41-year guerrilla war.

The weapons were handed over near the northern Iraqi town of Suleymaniya, controlled by the autonomous Kurdish government, on the outskirts of Mount Kandil where the main base of the group’s armed forces is located.

The ceremony, as reported by ERT’s correspondent in Turkey, effectively marks the formal start of the disarmament, which Turkish officials say is expected to last between two and five months. The surrendered weapons were dumped into a prepared cauldron and then delivered to the firing line to be destroyed.

“We came here in response to the call of leader Apo (Abdullah Ocalan) to determine our stance. We took up arms against the denial and disappearance (of Kurdish identity) in order to give impetus to this process. We are freedom fighters. We are taking this step with the call of leader Apo, with the call of February 27, on the occasion of the decisions of the 12th PKK Congress,” said in her short speech Beshe Hosat, head of the PKK women’s organization and co-chair of the KCK.

The PKK members lined up on the podium that had been set up, with a large portrait of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan in the background, while the four leaders of the group sat at the table in front.

Present at the ceremony, in addition to the PKK members, were representatives of the autonomous Kurdish government and Kurdish parties in northern Iraq, Turkish officials, mainly members of the MIT intelligence service, leading members of the pro-Kurdish Equality and Democracy Party (DEM), which has recently mediated between the Turkish government and the imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, representatives of non-governmental organisations and journalists from the Turkish and international media.

No video and audio recording media were allowed to enter the venue and as announced in advance the visual material was distributed to the media after the event.

Ankara hailed the ceremony as a “turning point of no return” on the road to a future free of terrorism. “The laying down of arms by the PKK in Suleymaniya – a milestone in the third phase of the ongoing process of disarmament and self-disarmament – marks a concrete and welcome step,” a senior Turkish official told the Agence France-Presse.

“From now on, in order to continue our struggle for freedom, democracy and socialism through democratic political and legal means and on the basis of the adoption of laws for democratic integration, we destroy our weapons of our own free will,” reads a statement by the so-called “Social Group for Peace and Democracy” expressing PKK positions.

In one of the first reactions, the spokesman for Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Turkey, Omer Çelik, said that “at this stage, a critical threshold has been crossed towards achieving the goal of ‘Turkey without terrorism’. Henceforth, the process of dismantling all branches and illegal structures of the PKK, as well as the burning/delivery of weapons, must be completed in a short period of time.”

A momentous speech by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been announced for tomorrow in connection with this process, which Ankara calls “Turkey without terrorism.”

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s congress last May had decided to disband the organization and end its armed action, in line with the call of its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan.

Abdullah Ocalan from prison on the island of Imrali had called on February 27 this year for the PKK to be disbanded and disarmed, responding to a proposal by President Erdogan’s government partner, extreme nationalist extremist Devlet Bahçeli.

“The founding leadership of the PKK kept its promise, stood behind its commitment and recognized global and regional threats in time. Indeed, we are living in days of exceptional importance, both for Turkey and for our region,” Bahçeli said immediately after the Kurdish organization destroyed the weapons.

He further claimed that “DEM, maintaining a prudent and responsible political line, remained sincerely faithful to the goal of a ‘Turkey without terrorism’, and with balanced and apt statements and considerations, took the position in favor of the millennial brotherhood.”